Welcome To My Nightmare

No, I am not talking about the Alice Cooper song even though the title definitely fits this blog. A few months ago a friend of mine decided to keep what is called a Dream Journal. Every time he had a dream he would write it down as fast as he could upon waking before it faded away. I was kinda enthralled with that idea. I know that I have a lot of memorable dreams (at least those that I remember right?) and I would love to revisit them.

Now I don't believe that dreams have much meaning, if any. I am sure that we can learn about ourselves from our dreams and that dreams can help us get through things but I just think that they have any special meaning or have special tokens. But I do know that if I ever was in a tornado, I would know EXACTLY what to do since I have survived most of the tornadoes that I have dreamt about. Keeping a Dream Journal would be interesting to see the patterns. I know I dream about tornadoes a lot (just last Friday night) but if I kept a journal I would know how frequent they were. My dreams range from the downright scary (just last week I dreamt that I was attacked by the Devil himself) to the absolute cool (I dreamt I was an X-Man!) and to the absurd. And I also die in my dreams, I have been shot, stabbed, crushed and beaten to death in my dreams. Kristy does not like to hear about my dreams.

The other night I had a dream that felt and seemed so real. And it has been a dream that has stuck with me since. I think about it often and it is starting to drive me nuts. I dreamt about someone here in the neighborhood that I am friends with. I don't want to name names here since there is an outside chance he/she might see this and I don't want to embarrass them or creep them out that I had a dream about them.

The dream was normal enough. No flying pigs, tornadoes or anything like that. I had run into them while walking around the neighborhood and they had called me over. I walked over and this person asked a question that caught me off guard in my dream and still rests on my mind.

"Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure. What's up?"
"Why do you care?"
"About what?"
"Why do you care about me?"

I remember that I was taken back and didn't know what to say. I thought about how I knew them and the many times I have served them and how they have served me. But I just didn't know exactly what to say.

Then I woke up.

I don't get why this has bugged me and I certainly don't know why I cannot simply forget about this dream. It has been four days since that dream and I still think about it. I have tried to make sense of this and I have come to a couple of conclusions of why it bugs me.

1. I think it bugs because this person should know darn well why I care about them. It should be pretty obvious. This person has served my family and I and has been a huge example to all of us. I have told this person many times how much I appreciate them and I look for ways to serve them. They should know that I love them.
2. It also bugs me that I didn't have a chance to say anything to them when I was dreaming. They asked and I never answered. It was like I failed.
3. Maybe I don't mean anything to them like they do to me. Maybe I am just off my rocker. I hope that is not the case but there is this small nagging doubt.

So why in the heck would I dream about something like this? And why am I still thinking about it? This is not the first time that a dream has made such an impact on me and stayed with me for days.

All I know is that my next dream better be one of my superhero ones. I don't think I could take another one of these serious drama dreams.

Random Ramblings: Bob the Badger

Kristy has unfortunately been quite sick the last couple of days (she has Strep Throat) so my sleeping schedule has been a little off as well. Now I am not complaining, I would rather have a strange sleep schedule over having a Hulk-sized throat. I usually wake up when she does during the night and that has led to me remember some strange dreams.

Enter Bob the Badger.

I dreamt that my dad and I were at my sister's house and for some reason she had a vicious pet badger named Bob that stayed in the back yard. My dad and I were teasing this poor badger, banging on the window and yelling at it and it was certainly mad. It was trying its best to claw and chew through the glass and my dad and I just mocked it. And then we realized that we left the back door open. We ran to the back door and the badger was opening the door and pushing itself in. My dad shut the door on Bob and it was still trying to claw its way in. I ran to the kitchen and grabbed some spaghetti tongs and used them to shut the badger's mouth closed. We barely survived!

So where the crap did that come from? Does the badger symbolize something? Do I really want to know? And how the heck did I know that his name was Bob the Badger?

A Tale of Two Dreams

Day 126

Last night I caught a case of the giggles while sleeping. Kristy woke me up by poking me and when I woke up I was still giggling.

Before I was waken up, I was dreaming that my family and I was watching America's Funniest Videos (a family favorite show to watch) and in my dream I was telling Kristy and Logan that they needed to pay special attention to the show. But Kristy kept getting up and going into the kitchen during the show and I was afraid that she was going to miss a certain video. I had taken a video camera and scared the crap out of Kristy. She was napping on the couch and I made this Donald Duck noise and she woke up screaming in fear and I got it all on video. And I had sent that video to AFV. We saw the video and I started to giggle. And then Kristy woke me up and I was totally giggling.

It's too bad that my other dream that I had was as terrifying as the last one was funny.

I have often thought about keeping a Dream Journal. Where I would wake up and the first thing I would do is write down any lingering thoughts or dreams. I know a lot of writers that do this and they take those dreams and make them into dreams.

My next dream was not a happy one. I was on a pretty big boat in the middle of the ocean. I was with my dad and a set of guys I didn't know. There was a couple of kids with us. One of the kids was my neighbor and it was my job to watch her. They were all watching the news but I wouldn't. I was getting Krissy a drink of Kool-Aid when the boat was hit by this wave. It totally destroyed the boat and swept was all out. I tried to hold on to Krissy but she was swept out of my arms. I must have lost consciousness because the next thing I know I am waking up next to this island. I looked around to get my bearings and noticed that I was laying on a bunch of dead bodies. I walked on top of them closer to the beach and saw even more bodies. Some were sticking out of the sand. I then heard this horrible crunching noise and I knew that another wave was coming. I ran up the hill but I kept sinking into the mud so I had to use the dead bodies to steady myself. I made it up the hill and my dad was there. He helped me up and I asked him about the crew and he said he has not seen anyone. He broke down and said that he lost his kid (I guess we all had a kid we had to take care of) and we hiked up further on the hill. The crunching noise got louder and the island was hit by another wave. At this point I am not entirely sure if the wave was even water. But it hit the island hard and knocked us off our feet. We looked down and saw the water rise with all the mud and bodies and it crept closer to us. And then I woke up.

What the heck is up with that?

I don't mean to be so depressing but I thought it would be interesting to write these down.

And by the way, a did dream of tornadoes about a week or so ago. I think it would be interesting to see if I do dream of tornadoes monthly.

Sweet Dreams (Are NOT Made of This)

Day 96

I had my usual tornado dream the other night. This one involved my dad; who is a mainstay in my tornado dreams. I was in a large city and there was this huge storm in the middle of the night. I was all alone, I was waiting for dad to come home and I decided to sleep in the middle of the hallway because the walls were shaking due to the wind. The next morning was just as stormy and I ventured out to catch the bus to work. I was supposed to meet dad at the bus stop but he missed the bus. I saw him running to catch it. I got off the next stop and ran back to meet him. Then the storm became large again and we all took shelter in this Smith's grocery store. Above their flower/garden department was a glass ceiling. We looked up and saw a funnel cloud right above us. It descended down and hit the glass ceiling making huge cracks in the glass. We all ran away and the tornado disappeared. Then we heard another one roaring in and it hit the store hard. Then I woke up.


I dream about tornadoes all the time. I usually dream about them at least once a month. I am fascinated by them but at the same time they do scare me. I cannot view pictures of tornadoes without feeling this fear. I love to watch shows about them but I have to watch them with someone with me. I cannot be all alone. I really think that I have a real tornado phobia, called Lilapsophobia. I blame my dad for this but that is another story for another blog. In fact, they freak me out enough that I probably won't post a picture of a real tornado so I posted one of my drawings.

All I know is that if an actual tornado hits I will have no problem surviving one since I have survived and experienced a ton of them. I have never been killed by a tornado in my dreams either. So I should be able to survive one. I know exactly what I need to do during a tornado.

My wife Kristy hates to hear about my dreams since they are rarely good ones. Unfortunately, the rest of my memorable dreams have to do with me being killed. I have been shot and stabbed multiple times in my dreams. I could actually feel the blade in me and could feel my life slowly slipping away. So I don't fear death either. Unless my death has to do with a swarm of spiders. That totally scares me.


But I did have a memorable dream that surprisingly had nothing to do with tornadoes or dying. Many years ago when I was in college I had a dream about this girl. During the dream I was racing around Europe trying to find her so I can marry her but that was it, nothing special. I dreamt that I eventually found her and I spent the rest of the dream trying to get plane tickets. So again, big whup.

A few weeks later I was sitting in my theatre class at Utah State and in walked this girl. I kept looking at her because I thought I knew her. She looked so familiar to me and then it hit me! It was the same girl from my dreams! Seriously! I told my buddy Lared about this and he told me I should at least talk to her but I totally chickened out big time. I sat as far away as I could from her. I never got to know her and I never even found out what her name was. It was so awkward being around her.